


Seamus

by woolgathered



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Backstory, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 05:52:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woolgathered/pseuds/woolgathered
Summary: Backstory for a half elf Druid.





	Seamus

I remember the Elders, firelight dancing in their eyes and casting wild silhouettes against the darkness of the night Forest. Before that, there is nothing but what they told me: they had found me abandoned in the woods, a newborn wrapped in cloth, wriggling on the duff. The only sign of my past was a bronze pentacle dangling from a chain around my neck. They brought me through many illnesses into a healthy childhood and they made me their student. I knew I was not of their race, but we were family. I learned the ways of the Forest alongside them: Fiachra, Latharn, Oisian. 

My foster mother’s face, too, I remember. Maeve. She told me the stories of her mother, and her mother’s mother. The Forest had once been great, strong, an untouchable expanse. Trees scraped the heavens, animals lived in harmony there. Were these fairy tales? She told me how she was a child when the earthquakes came, and then the fires and floods. The Forest was burned and blackened, the animals driven off. Rain washed away delicate soils. Survivors of every race had done their evils as well, harvesting trees to rebuild their villages and hunting the surviving deer almost to extinction. 

The surviving Old Keepers had gathered here, in the center of the Forest That Remained. And they had replanted, reclaimed. The Forest was healing. I learned how to hear it’s ancient voice so that I might restore it, too. Keep the balance. It was not always a gentle path. Trees must be thinned, animals culled and respectfully harvested. We were the arbiters of the balance, slowly correcting for the violence and carelessness of civilization. 

Oh, Elders, give me strength! I remember their faces again now, but this time lifeless and broken, horrified expressions upon them. Their blood spilled and the smell of it mingling with the burning Forest. The sound of the firestorm haunts me. I alone survived. 

We were closing the evening circle. It was the day before my Heralding, my coming of age as a Druid. I would receive my second name and join the Old Keepers on their ancient path. 

Why didn’t we hear the approach, where were our animal messengers? I will spend the rest of my life questioning how we were ambushed in the circle that night, marauded by mogs with fire-spewing machines of destruction. It should not have been possible. 

Yes, we fought. I thought we had the upper hand, but the wind picked up and with it, the fire. Men and animals fought the vile horde. I saw Oisian fall. Swinging my staff wildly, I worked my way to the lodge to warn the rest, but as I tore through the clearing I saw the smoke billowing from the windows. It couldn’t be. It was. 

By the time I returned to the circle the trees were torches lighting the scene of a massacre. The mogs were still moving North, destroying everything in their path, as if they had not come for us but for total destruction of the Forest. 

I said the words over the bodies of my family. I took up my staff and cloak and I began my journey. When I return, it will be with power to undo what was done. 

 

———

Seamus is a tall and wiry half-elf Druid with copper skin, jet black hair, and yellow eyes. His parentage is unknown but he was raised by human druids. He wears a tunic and britches, leather armor and a bearskin cloak. A woolen cap covers his head, and the mysterious bronze pentacle rests near his heart. He wields a quarterstaff crowned with an amber orb on one end. There is a knife at his belt. He carries a backpack with 50 feet of hempen rope, a waterskin, 10 torches, 10 days rations, a tinderbox, mess kit, bedroll, flute, and small pouch containing 10GP. The burns he received during the battle against the orcs are beginning to fade.


End file.
